Tuesday, September 13, 2011

Yikes! Troy Anthony Davis Given Execution Date

Holy Cow! I missed it until alerted by The Skeptical Spouse.

Last Wednesday, Georgia scheduled the execution of Troy Anthony Davis for 21 September. That's barely a week away.

I have been looking into the case when I have a spare moment here and there. I recognized that it would be a complex case that would take me a long time to research and evaluate. I had checked the calendar, and didn't see Davis scheduled for this month or the next, so I had not worked on his case recently. Now suddenly, I am in danger of not being able to give the case the attention it deserves.

I'll summarize very quickly here, then get back to work on the case.  Davis was convicted of killing a police officer. He was convicted exclusively on eyewitness testimony. Almost all of the eyewitnesses, seven of them as I recall, have since recanted (to some degree) their identification of Davis as the shooter. The case has made it to the Supreme Court at least twice, which is unusal to say the least. The last time, the Supremes bounced it to a lower court to review the claims of actual innocence. That judge reviewed all the original identifications and the recantations, and concluded Davis was not innocent.

The case made it's way back to the State of Georgia, which scheduled his execution without giving me a heads up.

So far, I have just been trying to collect and organize the data and all the claims. I have yet to try to make sense of it. I honestly do not yet have an idea on whether or not I will oppose this execution. I have found one point that interests me that no one else seems to speak of.

Stay tuned.

Addendum:
Part 1 of my multi-part assessment of the case is now available, here.